The Copper Bracelet
by Cassie's Neighbor
Summary: Kronos' scythe charm wasn't the only bracelet Silena wore. Being a daughter of Aphrodite, Silena can make even the shabbiest objects into fine jewelry. And that's what Beckendorf likes most about her. Light SilenaXBeckendorf.


**A/N: This happens between BoTL and TLO.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Percy Jackson and The Olympians<strong>

**Title: **The Copper Bracelet

**Summary: **Kronos' scythe charm wasn't the only bracelet Silena wore. Being a daughter of Aphrodite, Silena can make even the shabbiest objects into fine jewelry. And that's what Beckendorf likes most about her. Light SilenaXBeckendorf

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><p><em>Bang! Bang! Bang!<em>

The hammer pounded on the metal, impacting itself on the flat, Celestial Bronze surface. Charles Beckendorf wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead and continued to forge. The fire was intense, only adding to the prickly summer heat. He flipped the metal up front and banged it again with his bewitched hammer.

"What are you making?"

Charles' heart leaped up to his throat at the sound of her voice and the hammer slipped from his hand. It flew about three feet in the air and Charles whirled around at the sound of the small yelp. The girl dodged the hammer, letting it skid soundly beside her.

"Oh my gods! I'm sorry Silena. I didn't mean to – I should've been… I'm so sorry –," Even the strongest and the mightiest of Hephaestus sons could only babble like an idiot when faced with the fairest of Aphrodite's maidens.

Silena Beauregard only laughed. "It's okay. I'm sorry for disturbing you, anyways. I was just passing by and then I saw you and, well… I thought… Would you mind if I take a look around?" she said. "I've always wondered how the forges in here looked like."

Beckendorf just stood there, surprised. If there were any daughter of Aphrodite that waltzed around, inspecting his cabin's forges, Silena was the first.

"I uh… sure," he responded and Silena smiled.

She took her first step with her designer leather shoes, not really avoiding the slick motor oil that would tarnish its beauty. Charles Beckendorf gaped at her. Males do have the tendency to watch her whenever she walks by, and he was no exception.

Stepping at the armor he was supposed to make, he was brought back to his senses and started working. He took another screw and bolted it with exterior of the armor, plating it with Celestial Bronze.

In his mind, he wondered why Silena would come to the forges and 'look around'. Was it probable that she did it because she wants to see him?

Nah. He doesn't want to get too hopeful.

His heart did a little jitterbug in his chest when he thought about tonight. Today was July 4th. Tonight, the Hephaestus cabin would be showcasing their prowess and cackle the fireworks they made. Everyone was busy today, including him. The fireworks were already finished and so he busied himself in remaking the armors dented and destroyed by the Athena and the Ares cabins. All of his hard work would pay off tonight – he would be taking Silena as his date to the fireworks.

What could be the reason that Silena said yes to him? Was she just trying to appease him from that traumatizing event back at Capture the Flag? Was it because she felt a bond between him after the whole event? Was it because she liked him? Or was it all three?

He thought about the bronze dragon. He thought about how he rescued the whole camp from it and how Silena dubbed him a hero. He thought about how he, burned with the dragon's fire and tenderized by the Murmeek's acidic saliva, managed to ask her out without jizzing his pants and all that.

"Um, Charlie?" Silena's melodic voice rammed him from his thoughts. "What is this?"

"Oh," Beckendorf placed his hammer beside the sheeted metal. He eyed the twirled wire Silena was holding. "That's a copper wire," he said in a deep voice. "We have a um," he held out another bunch of wires poking out of the wooden cable box. "Coaxial ones and bundled ones. The one you're holding is a bundled one– it has six copper wires wrapped in the black insulation. The coaxial ones just have one copper wire inside them and sheathed in a plastic or rubber jacket."

"Sorry," he added. "I must be boring you."

"No, you're not," she shook her head hastily. "This is fascinating. Everything you do is fascinating."

Beckendorf was fazed. A daughter of the love goddesss could not be considering tuning out pistons and chugging motor oils to be fascinating.

And then, Silena's whole face brightened and she began digging through tool boxes and messy metal drawers. Beckendorf decided to follow her suit, making sure she doesn't get a cut or break her nail or something.

"What are you looking for?"

Silena twirled her head to face him and Beckendorf's eyebrows knitted in confusion. He tried to hide a smile. Her cheek was suddenly blanched with a black smudge on her otherwise perfect makeup. "I don't know. I need something to takes off the insulation on this wire."

"What are you planning to make?"

Silena turned back to fiddling with the clanging tools. "A bracelet."

"You're going to make a bracelet out of copper wires?"

She nodded and continued to rake her manicured nails. Not knowing what else to say, Beckendorf decided to help her out and took a pair of pliers and wire cutters from the upper shelf. "Is this what you're looking for?"

Silena nodded. She stood up in her dainty feet and took the tools. She sat across the ground, her legs crossed. She stretched and got to work.

"Uh, wait," Silena's eyes met his. She twirled the pliers haphazardly with her fingers and smiled sheepishly. "How do you use this?"

Beckendorf chuckled and sat across her, showing her how to skin the wire with the pliers and the cutter. "Just use your thumb as leverage," he said, guiding her hand as it wove through the wire. Beckendorf thought about how warm Silena's hands were. A minute to soon, he finally let go, not wanting to scare her off.

"Thanks," Silena mumbled. She cut the wire very carefully. She tore the black insulation at both ends, exposing the strands of copper. He watched her surreptitiously twirl the ends of the wires with the pliers like a candy cane. The separate strands looked like vines entwined harmoniously, and Beckendorf watched as she unconsciously wiped the sweat dripping on her forehead. He watched as her tongue stuck out at the end as she worked, at how everything in him seemed to wrap around the moment where the girl who saved her life was fiddling wires with his equipment, at how this girl was trying to be a son of Hephaestus even for just a minute.

The whole scene was normal… and unreal at the same time. Even with the sun beaming down at her back, sweat glistening on her forehead and she was grime-streaked all over her face, Silena managed to outshine everything in the cabin. Even Beckendorf himself, and he's not complaining.

And he just sat there, cross-legged in all his asininity, wondering how many were those whose hearts were snared by daughters of Aphrodite. Hearts that were snared and broken.

He sighed internally.

Awe reached him again as Silena twirled the wire on her wrist. The blackness of the insulation cover made Silena's pale skin glow in contrast and the exposed wires gleamed like bronze under the sun. Just like Silena, the bracelet was strikingly beautiful.

And Silena earned Beckendorf's utmost respect.

"It's beautiful," Beckendorf said in a small voice. And at that, Beckendorf knew that Silena was constantly showered by praises. He knew she deserved it.

Silena gave the bracelet a quick up down and smiled. "Thank you, Charlie."

He tried to smile. He knew that it must have looked more like a grimace for she laughed good-naturedly. "I'm bushed," she said shallowly and stood up. "I guess I'll see you tonight."

Still in the aftershock of his epiphany, Beckendorf only nodded.

"I can't wait to see what you guys made this year. I'm sure it's grand, as always."

"Nothing special, really."

Silena grinned. "I'm really looking forward tonight. And I'm sorry if I uh…, "she held up her bracelet.

He shook his head. "It's fine. No problem."

They stood in a not-so-awkward silence and stared ahead at the camp before them. The Apollo kids were, again, arguing at a simple game of hoops. Beckendorf's mind rewinds back again to Battle Of The Labyrinth, and how, at the nick of time, they all managed to come back alive. He wasn't sure what the future has in store for him, or if the Fates would act all the more merciful, but in any case, he'll do anything to keep both the mystical and the mortal world safe.

Silena eerily smiles again and he slumps back closer to home.

Before he can stop himself, he said, "Are you going to wear that again tonight?" He pointed at the wire around her wrist.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah."

She grinned. "Then I will."

There was something about how Silena Beauregard 's eyes mysteriously flickered at him as she waved goodbye. And like any other male, the best he can do was stare after her.

There wasn't much of a sign of what, in overall, he felt about her. Moreover, he wasn't sure of what she felt about him either.

He wondered is she felt it too.

He's just a son of Hephaestus and she was a daughter of Aphrodite.

But he didn't have to worry too much.

He would wait.

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><p><strong>AN: I hope you all liked the 'light' fluff. I'm sorry if it has a lot of errors. Made it all in a rush. Timed myself up to twenty minutes. I made a copper wire bracelet a few months ago and I've decided to write a fic all about it. So yeah. This is the first time I made a SilenaxBeckendorf fic, so sorry if I didn't quite catch the point of interest. **

**Please review!**


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